We're in rehearsal of Swan Lake Act II
They've been standing for ages and they've probably got a dead leg
and their calf is probably up their handspring
And now they've got to get jumping and moving and looking beautiful
in line and in sync
Beautiful symmetry throughout
It is probably the most nerve-racking Corps de Ballet roles ever
I remember learning it at school
We're just stretching off our calves, not that I've done any work
But they have worked their socks off
Feels like heaven
It's that thing when you've overworked your calves and
you're so paranoid that your feet are pointing every time you jump
Cause it's probably one of the most dancing corps de ballets roles
But you probably don't feel like you're dancing
Because it probably feels so stilted and every time you get into line
and wait and wait and wait and you forget to breathe
and that's why you get cramp in the muscles
The music is so beautiful, you get so carried away and you can't
You have to contain it and focus and side lines, front lines
The peripheral vision is intense
To stay in line is everything, isn't it?
It's still one of the hardest corps de ballet role, isn't it?
When you're learning in the beginning, you do the dance and you skip
the bits when you have to stand
and I was like 'Oh this is not so bad!'
Why am I thinking that Swan Lake is so hard?
but then actually when you have to stand there
then it's hard
And you need to remember to breathe because you don't want to wobble
You don't want to shake, get on a nerve and start shaking
Awful thing, you do hold your breath, that helps you keep still
I try to think, like a sinking feeling but to *exhale*
Feet spread even though you're in pointe shoes
But to really feel that 'duck feet' almost
It's a beautiful build up now to the very end and I can't tell you
how the corps de ballet are nearly incredibly relieved
that they are nearly at the end
It's so simple, the moves, they are from our basic repertoire of moves
The most purest vocabulary of dance and classical ballet
But somehow it's the most difficult as well
So as you can feel the music building and building
The girls now have to go for it and finish beautifully at the very end